in which Cora pulls faces & is a jealous mistress
by Scarlet Secret
Summary: "He was cleverer than she thought but she'd seen the way his eyes had been heading even if his hands had remained innocent." At the Servant's Ball of 1916 Cora watches a new friendship with absolute indignation.


_A/N: As promised to **Doctor Madwoman**, Cora unleashing her jellus kitteh face. You shall just have to think of the soppies Liz face that you can throughout._

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_1916 – Servant's Ball_

Cora narrowed her eyes at the partially hunched man in the corner of the room and quietly seethed.

There was nothing she could do of course. She had long since learnt that attempting to offer an opinion about Robert's valets invariably ended in a row, even if this one wasn't the sainted Bates, and so she kept her mouth shut and prepared to bide her time until she had something a little more solid to go to him with. It wasn't that she particularly disliked Mr Lang as an individual, quite the opposite in fact: he was presentable and upright and, as far as she was aware, didn't have a treacherous wife in the background just waiting to cause trouble, and to top it all off he was a war hero and there was nothing that her husband loved more than an army man. Sadly she was beginning to think that was truer than she could ever have imagined and his adoration for the men who came back eclipsed even his love for her but the war would pass, as it had before, and he would come back to her in spirit as well as body.

And she had it on good authority - his own - that Robert wasn't even that taken with his new valet anyway! So perhaps there were defects to the man's character that hadn't surfaced yet? Carson certainly thought he was more than suitable and there were few people in the world that Cora trusted to be of sounder judgement than the butler but then again Mr Lang hadn't been here very long and Carson had been know to be wrong...

No, as much as she would like there to be there was nothing at all wrong with Mr Lang on the surface, but as far as Cora was concerned there _was_ something wrong with the company he was keeping, even if Cora couldn't fault his taste. Standing next to the newest addition to their staff Cora couldn't help but let her eyes linger curiously over her maid and wonder what on earth an otherwise entirely sensible woman like O'Brien was doing conversing with a _man _that the household knew next to nothing about. Surely O'Brien was old and wise enough to realise that fraternisation was usually the downfall of a good servant?

She scanned the room as she plucked a drink from the hall table where they had been poured earlier and found Mrs Hughes amongst the crowd. Usually the housekeeper's instincts about such things were formidable but Cora could only assure she'd become distracted by dancing with Dr Clarkson and had thus dropped the ball with Lang and Cora decided that the new valet must have a cunning that was capable of outpacing her ever watchful housekeeper.

She sipped her drink and kept a close eye on him as he leant closer to O'Brien. For one moment, filled with an awful clarity, Cora was sure he was going to kiss her maid and she knocked back her drink in one to bolster herself up for the inevitable chastisement she was going to have to deliver but instead Mr Lang surprised her and reached for a drink off the table. And it wasn't even strong drink.

She simmered and narrowed her eyes further.

He was cleverer than she thought but she'd seen the way his eyes had been heading even if his hands had remained innocent. O'Brien was looking particularly lovely this evening, dressed in a charcoal colour rather than her usual black and with a russet trim that highlighted the strands of her hair that were the same colour in the warm light. Cora had a feeling that the men of the world were probably safer with Sarah O'Brien being a servant and wearing black because even this small amount of colour was clearly attracting disreputable types! And O'Brien, bless her heart, didn't even seem to realise!

O'Brien smiled softly at something Lang said and Cora strained her ears futilely trying to hear something. She couldn't of course, no one could at this distance, but she watched as O'Brien lowered her head to smile widely, something Cora knew she did when she was deeply amused and sharing the joke with her companion but wanting to block out the rest of the world. Something Cora had only ever seen O'Brien do with _her_ before.

She reached for another drink.

"My dear?"

Her eyes never left O'Brien and Lang.

"Yes darling?"

"Do come and dance with me won't you? If you don't I'll have to dance with Rosamund."

"That's nice."

"I know she's my sister but I would much rather," she felt her free hand being taken and lifted up to his lips only very vaguely. "Dance with my wife."

"Isobel's free I believe."

"She may well be free," indignation mixed with amusement coloured her husband's words and she had the notion that he had asked her for something she'd missed entirely. "But she doesn't cut as pleasant a figure."

She smiled softly at her husband, briefly taking her eyes away from the other pair and considering the possibility that she was overreacting. Mr Lang didn't look like an especially physically powerful man and O'Brien was more than capable of looking after herself, and as far as she knew her maid was just being kind to the odd man, as she was with Thomas. She let Robert lead her onto the dance floor and spin her until her back was towards their personal servants, sure nothing too terrible could occur without her being able to interfere.

"I wish Matthew could be here."

Cora smiled sympathetically and tried not to roll her eyes. She could well understand why Matthew's presence might be desirable for her husband and his thwarted ambition to have a son, but she had taken the liberty of inviting Sir Richard Carlisle and for once Mary seemed to actually be engaging in entertaining conversation with the man she was supposed to be marrying. Cora had married for convenience and position and, despite her nature, she held no lofty beliefs about waiting for true love, but Sir Richard was a fine catch for any woman and she _understood _that Mary's heart might lie elsewhere but it wouldn't do to get sidetracked by somebody else when a perfectly pleasant life was before you and -

"Where's O'Brien gone?"

Robert furrowed his brow at the ceasing of their dancing after only one spin.

"I beg your pardon?"

Cora stared at the spot that had been occupied only moments before by her maid and Robert's valet and was aghast to see it was now bereft of said pair. Robert looked bewildered and she didn't spare him a moment of explanation before gliding towards the corner as casually as she could, on the pretence of speaking to Edith nearby.

"Edith darling, you didn't by any chance see where Miss O'Brien and Mr Lang went did you?"

Edith turned away from her conversation with Thomas but Cora would have had to be blind not to see the slight smirks that passed between them.

"They were there a moment ago mama, I think they might have gone outside."

"Perhaps for a cigarette m'lady? Miss O'Brien can't smoke indoors after all."

Cora nodded along with this, willing it to be true and quite sure that it _was _true in essence but it didn't camouflage the fact that O'Brien was outside and alone with a soldier, looking as lovely as she ever had and with no one to protect her virtue. She left the younger pair, curiously not sparing the slightest thought for Edith's virtue being endangered by Thomas, and slipped towards the door to the servant's hall, dodging Rosamund as she went. Now was no time to get drawn into Rosamund's new fascination for mixing spirits together with various juices and giving them silly names.

She hurried down the staircase and approached the back door carefully, determined to catch him in the act and rescue O'Brien and have a solid reason to insist on his dismissal. She couldn't be foiled! Without good reason Robert wouldn't let her interfere with his valets without expecting the same in return and if she let her husband have his way with O'Brien's employment then it might spell the end for the maid so this might be her only opportunity to oust the damned man!

"Thank you for the cigarette."

"That's quite alright Mr Lang, I had a bulk of French tobacco off Thomas for Christmas."

"I'm surprised Mr Carson thought it was an appropriate present for a lady," there was the slightest hint of amusement and Cora heard the same back from her maid.

"I've never been called a lady before, I think you must be getting me confused with one of them lot."

Cora seethed. She'd _always_ thought O'Brien was a lady and because of her own restraint she hadn't been the first person to tell her! Well she'd just have to make it up to her after she saved her from the trouble that was undoubtedly about to occur.

She stood. She listened. Neither of the pair spoke again and for a moment Cora wondered whether they'd seen her and were being quiet accordingly, there could be no other reason why… oh god no! She stuck her head around the corner immediately, sure she was about to catch O'Brien being molested against a wall and her pretty dress in ruins but she was sorely mistaken.

The yard was lit by the moon and for the first time she could see them sat on the bench, at least two feet away from each other and smoking in silent friendliness. They weren't speaking but neither did there seem to be any awkwardness between them as they contemplated the stars and blew great puffs of smoke up into the black night.

O'Brien shot immediately to her feet when she saw her and Cora offered an apologetic and affectionate smile.

"Dear O'Brien, I'm terribly sorry to bother you but Rosamund wants to mix drinks again and if I remember rightly you were always the most successful at finding a nice combination."

"I'd be happy to m'lady."

She congratulated herself on her quick thinking and knew she could rely on Rosamund to go along with the new plan happily. O'Brien looked bemused but far from put out so Cora was content to know that her maid was happy to come with her and just to make sure, as O'Brien reached her side and tossed away her cigarette, she took the small woman's work-worn hand in hers and gave her a dazzling smile.

"You're the only one I trust not to poison me."

Cora smirked internally as O'Brien looked up at her with a bashful smile, pleased she could still illicit a unique response in her maid. They were halfway towards the door when Lang called after them.

"You'll have to sell your recipes Miss O'Brien, make your fortune that way."

Cora watched, with a sinking spirit as O'Brien smiled, long and slow, back at the valet as she allowed herself to be lead through the door, not looking half as moved by the touch as she had before. Well, Cora snappishly thought to herself, she would have to think of something else wouldn't she?

Damn him though. He was sneakier than she had anticipated and clearly mocking her.

She held O'Brien's hand tighter.

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Any good? More jellus kitteh faces requires?


End file.
